Labor/Environmentalist Take Stands

Early voting ends November 2. The general election is Nov 6. Below
is a report on union positions, further below that is some comments from leading
environmentalist Molly Rooke.

The Dallas Central Labor Council took no position on the Trinity
River project. When the results are in, it will still be hard to figure out
what people actually thought about the toll road proposed to be built alongside
the Trinity River. The arguments have been going on for years. Yard signs are
saying "yes. keep their toll road out of our park" and "no, save
the Trinity." The latter slogan is entirely misleading, as has been the
entire campaign dating back for years. A "no" vote has nothing to
do with saving the river. It just encourages people to vote "no" to
a proposal that would bar toll roads from the Trinity floodway.

The issue is the toll road, not the river. Those who want the
toll road are "no" and those who do not want it are the "yes"
sloganeers. Many voters will probably not vote either way, because it is on
the bottom of the Dallas ballot and it is really confusing. Those who do vote
are likely to get it wrong, because, even after the millions of dollars worth
of advertising, there is no "yes" and "no" on the ballot.
Those who oppose the toll road should vote "FOR" and those who want
the toll road should vote "AGAINST." It is a dirty shame that all
this smoke and confusion will likely prevent a clear vote on this important
issue.

According to Ed Sills of the Texas AFL-CIO, they took positions
in support of six of the state amendments and took no position on the remaining
ones.

These are the ones on which the Texas AFL-CIO recommends a "yes"
vote:

Proposition 15 -- $3 billion in bonds to create a Cancer Prevention and Research
Institute and to fight cancer over the next decade

While the interests of Jobs with Justice are wholly with labor, we also work
closely with environmentalists. The comments below come from a very reliable
environmentalist source, Molly Rooke.

**

See www.lwvtexas.org for a Voters Guide
to the 2007 constitutional amendments (explanations and pros and cons) now on
our ballots statewide (early voting ends November 2 and election day is Tuesday
November 6, 7 a.m.-7p.m.)
The guide is at http://www.lwvtexas.org/PDF%20Files/2007%20CA%20VG.pdf .

Environmental recommendations and considerations on some propositions include:

2007 constitutional amendments

#4 Vote for Prop 4! Support State Parks--critical needs! For more information
on this prop., see
http://texas.sierraclub.org/conservation/parks20071022.asp

#12 Some environmentalists have decided to vote against this transportation
funding prop for various reasons. Molly's additional thoughts on prop 12:
- It might be better to meet additional transportation funding needs by slightly
raising gas tax rates, which might increase the chances that people would consider
more fuel efficient vehicles, (the state has a program which can help low income
Texans to replace their vehicles with cleaner, and maybe more fuel efficient
ones, see http://www.texas.sierraclub.org/press/scr/scr20070926.pdf), commuting
less (by working from home or living closer to work), carpooling, using public
transportation, etc.. -Also, one of the reasons the Texas Transportation Commission
might want more money is to build additional roads to encourage more development
and sprawl. -As our state grows in population, do we really want to make it
easy for our public policy makers to continue to follow the short sighted and
unsustainable economic growth model which depends on and encourages population
growth, which does so much harm to our environment by multiplying all our environmental
stressors?

#16 In the legislative session the Sierra Club supported the proposed constitutional
amendment that is now on the ballot as Prop 16 - financial assistance for water
and sewer projects in colonias (EDAP program - economically disadvantaged areas
program). The Sierra Club continues to support that proposal.

Dallas
Proposition 1- (City of Dallas voters only) Vote FOR!
See http://www.trinityvote.org for
LOTS of important information and links to articles and videos at http://www.trinityvote.org/blog/index.asp#327
. As one of the recent KERA reports makes clear, the Army Corps of Engineers
is being misquoted by the Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, and all of the pro-toll
road side's claims and reasons to vote no are either false or misleading. Don't
be confused on this, as the other side is trying to do to voters--if you really
want to save the Trinity, VOTE YES or FOR proposition one on the bottom of the
Dallas ballots.

If you live in another DFW area city and want to help, even though you can't
vote on the issue, you can still help with it.
See how at www.DallasSierraClub.org
and/or www.TrinityVote.org .

Be sure to VOTE for the environment! Our lives depend on it.
Thanks, Molly Rooke